Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by sterling8
Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang
4.0
I haven't read much Chinese science fiction so my sample size might not be big enough to make these generalizations, but what Hao Jingfang and Liu Cixin have in common, at least, is that they use science fiction very conceptually. Their books explore philosophical ideas through their characters. There isn't always a lot of action because the point of the books is to discuss these ideas.
In Vagabonds, the question being asked is "how can societal change happen effectively?" In this book, Earth remains a consumer-oriented capitalist society. Everything is monetized- ideas, art, technology. On Earth, the angle is always toward making profit. On Mars, everything is organized toward building knowledge. Once each person is of age, they choose an atelier and spend the rest of their lives working in this area, whether it be flight technology or fashion. Everyone competes to produce new ideas and add to the body of knowledge that Mars is building.
A group of young people have recently returned to Mars after spending five years on Earth, ostensibly having been working on their educations but in reality being hostages to keep war from breaking out between the planets. These young people have had the chance to see more than one point of view, and this means that the scales have fallen from their eyes.
The young vagabond student travelers now can see the chinks in Martian society. While in theory Mars is about selflessly producing knowledge, in reality budgets are determined by who has the flashiest new theory or invention and ateliers are dominated by older people so that younger people must play politics in order to get a large enough share of the budget that they can produce something new, become known, and therefore become entitled to more of the budget themselves. Its actually a lot like the current academic world, in which young idealistic graduate students work under professors, who might or might not be ethical and altruistic when it comes to giving their young subordinates credit.
These young people see flaws that they hadn't seen before, but they don't know what to do about it. Some of them want "revolution", although they can't say what they want the outcome of that revolution to be. Some want to manipulate the system and gain recognition and power. Some want the approval of their peers and will go along with whatever those peers decide, and some just want to survive doing something that they love. One main character, Lioying, vacillates back and forth. She knows that her parents were involved in a previous protest but doesn't know the full story. She isn't exactly satisfied with the current system, but she can't settle on a particular way to improve things.
This disenchantment with the system is cyclical, just as it is in our recent history. Young people are repeating arguments similar to those which were also espoused fifty years ago. In Vagabonds, it's ironic that some young people want to change things back to the way they were before the previous revolution changed things and moved things forward (in theory).
Hao Jingfang doesn't give an answer to the question she asks, except perhaps to eschew violence as an effective way to make changes happen. She hints that nothing is new under the sun and that systems will always fall into corruption regardless of the good intentions of those who create them. She seems to say that the only change we can be sure of is the change that we make individually in how we live and how we treat others. Honestly, as often as I'm overwhelmed with all that's wrong in the world and how unlikely it seems that anything can be fixed, this seems as good a philosophy as any to me, and it's one that I can follow.
In Vagabonds, the question being asked is "how can societal change happen effectively?" In this book, Earth remains a consumer-oriented capitalist society. Everything is monetized- ideas, art, technology. On Earth, the angle is always toward making profit. On Mars, everything is organized toward building knowledge. Once each person is of age, they choose an atelier and spend the rest of their lives working in this area, whether it be flight technology or fashion. Everyone competes to produce new ideas and add to the body of knowledge that Mars is building.
A group of young people have recently returned to Mars after spending five years on Earth, ostensibly having been working on their educations but in reality being hostages to keep war from breaking out between the planets. These young people have had the chance to see more than one point of view, and this means that the scales have fallen from their eyes.
The young vagabond student travelers now can see the chinks in Martian society. While in theory Mars is about selflessly producing knowledge, in reality budgets are determined by who has the flashiest new theory or invention and ateliers are dominated by older people so that younger people must play politics in order to get a large enough share of the budget that they can produce something new, become known, and therefore become entitled to more of the budget themselves. Its actually a lot like the current academic world, in which young idealistic graduate students work under professors, who might or might not be ethical and altruistic when it comes to giving their young subordinates credit.
These young people see flaws that they hadn't seen before, but they don't know what to do about it. Some of them want "revolution", although they can't say what they want the outcome of that revolution to be. Some want to manipulate the system and gain recognition and power. Some want the approval of their peers and will go along with whatever those peers decide, and some just want to survive doing something that they love. One main character, Lioying, vacillates back and forth. She knows that her parents were involved in a previous protest but doesn't know the full story. She isn't exactly satisfied with the current system, but she can't settle on a particular way to improve things.
This disenchantment with the system is cyclical, just as it is in our recent history. Young people are repeating arguments similar to those which were also espoused fifty years ago. In Vagabonds, it's ironic that some young people want to change things back to the way they were before the previous revolution changed things and moved things forward (in theory).
Hao Jingfang doesn't give an answer to the question she asks, except perhaps to eschew violence as an effective way to make changes happen. She hints that nothing is new under the sun and that systems will always fall into corruption regardless of the good intentions of those who create them. She seems to say that the only change we can be sure of is the change that we make individually in how we live and how we treat others. Honestly, as often as I'm overwhelmed with all that's wrong in the world and how unlikely it seems that anything can be fixed, this seems as good a philosophy as any to me, and it's one that I can follow.